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| Yekaterinburg: Komsomol and Cathedral |
One of my vivid recollections of the visit to Yekaterinburg is the fact that many of its streets have not been renamed. As a result, the Cathedral on the Blood on the spot of Ipatyev House where the imperial family had been shot stands at the junction of Tolmachyov St and Karl Liebknecht St. Not far from there runs Rosa Luxemburg St, and there are plenty of streets and squares still carrying the names of October Revolution, the First Five-year Plan, and various professions and recreations, from Weavers to Mountaneers.
Similar situation stands true in other Russian cities. In Ivanovo, not only have the monuments to Lenin been preserved, and the streets still carry the names of Lenin and Stalin, there also stand monuments to other revolutionaries. The wave of renaming the streets and knocking down the statues only seriously affected Moscow and St. Petersburg. The other cities and towns get by without many changes, and the newly built cathedral stands face to face with the monument to the Komsomol of the Urals.